Five years after he kidnapped a relative’s son and brutally murdered him on a railway track near Tirumullaivoyal station, Juhunu alias Chandrakanth, 39, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Principal Sessions Court on Monday.
Juhunu, a Rajasthan native, then 34, was unemployed and dependent on his relatives in Sowcarpet.
On September 25, 2008, he went to the residence of his relative, Anand C. Jain, a businessman dealing in steel utensils. He asked Anand’s wife, Shaila Jain for Rs. 50, which she refused to give him.
Under the pretext of playing with Monic, Shaila’s two-and-a-half-year-old son, Juhunu took the child away.
When Shaila realised her son was missing, she rushed to another relative’s house and then to the railway station, looking for him. One of her relatives then got a call from Juhunu demanding a ransom. Juhunu threatened to take the child to New Delhi and kill him, if the money was not paid.
The next day, the police recovered the child’s body near the tracks between Ambattur and Tirumullaivoyal railway stations. After a long manhunt across the country, the Mumbai police arrested Juhunu a month later.
According to the prosecution, Juhunu had kidnapped Monic because Shaila did not give him money for his expenses. At about 1 a.m., he had killed the child, smashing him against the tracks, while holding him by his legs.
Juhunu claimed in his defence that Monic died in an accident. He claimed that as he was sitting between two tracks with the sleeping child, Monic was sucked into the path of a speeding train.
Rejecting the theory, G. Chockalingam, Principal Sessions Judge, said, “The prosecution has established that the accused kidnapped the child from his mother and murdered him on the railway track.”
If it was really an accident, the body would not have been in one piece and in one particular spot. The court also rejected the defence that the accused was mentally ill, holding that it was not established.
The judge sentenced Juhunu to separate life terms for kidnapping and murder, but ordered that he undergo the sentences concurrently. The court also imposed fine of Rs.10,000 on him.
Both Anand C. Jain and Shaila were present in court when it pronounced its verdict, along with relatives. Tears rolled down Mrs. Jain’s eyes, as she heard the judgement.
“I am happy that my child’s killer was given life imprisonment. I have been waiting for this to happen for more than five years. Every mother should be bold and fight for justice for her child. I have lived with the conviction that I should not cry until we get justice. I have not cried so far,” she said, weeping.
Mr. Anand said though they were happy with verdict, nothing could can compensate for the loss of their child.
